Freeland made the comments on the sidelines of a major worldwide summit in Lima, Peru, which U.S. President Donald Trump skipped last minute to deal with the recent chemical-weapons attack in Syria, which culminated in the launch of U.S., British and French strikes against Syrian targets on Friday night.

But after days of Trump's telegraphing the coming assault, the strikes appear to have taken aim at targets more limited than some within his administration had championed, and the extent to which they would knock out Syria's chemical weapons production capacity was unclear Saturday. The US ambassador in Moscow, John Huntsman, said in a video: "Before we took action, the United States communicated with [Russia to] reduce the danger of any Russian or civilian casualties".

Charles Glass, author of Syria Burning, says there is a good chance bombings will extend the war.

· Russian Federation reported that the Syrian air defense systems intercepted around 70 of the missiles that had been fired towards the targets in Syria but the United States chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford said he was aware of no initial losses.

Syrian internal security forces entered Douma on Saturday and later said the town had been fully retaken.Jaish al-Islam, the group that held Douma, said it only abandoned the town because of the chemical attack.Ahmad, a 25-year-old mechanic who had been displaced from Douma, told AFP the Western strikes were nevertheless too little, too late."Assad won't collapse".

The leader of Hezbollah, the Lebonon-based, Iranian-backed militant group, said the strikes have strained global relations and could totally "torpedo" United Nations peace talks in Geneva. Syrian state media reported only three people injured, while Russia's Defence Ministry said there were "no victims" among Syrian civilians and military personnel.

"All (the U.S.) has achieved by arming the mainly jihadist opposition is the increase of Assad's dependence on Iran and Russia", Glass said.

Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said: 'We believe that by hitting Barzeh, in particular, we've attacked the heart of the Syrian chemicals weapon programme'.

Assad accepted an invitation to visit the Siberian region of Khanty-Mansi in Russian Federation.

Eid said quote, "I just want to tell Mr. Trump directly".

The Pentagon repeated Saturday that the President has the authority under the Constitution to defend U.S. interests, but what happens next is up to the Assad regime and Russian Federation. The legislation also called Putin out on human rights abuses.

The Russians and Syrians claimed they shot down dozens of these missiles, but the Pentagon says the Russian guns remained silent during the attack.

Pro-regime forces in Syria opened fire on buses carrying rebels and civilians from Eastern Ghouta, killing a 14-year-old boy, a monitor said Sunday. "As other nations step up their contributions, we look forward to the day when we can bring our warriors home".

The strike was never about regime change, said analysts and diplomats, but was meant to signal that US President Donald Trump was working closely with European allies to set limits on Assad's actions, weeks after saying it was time to withdraw US troops from the country.

The White House, mired in controversies, is not likely to pursue Assad too aggressively, Piazza said.